Welcome to the new website for Richmond Zine Fest. After learning that Posterous would be closing up shop in April, we decided to go ahead and move to WordPress. We hope you guys like the new digs as much as we do. A lot of changes and content are underway, including an archived history of zine fests past, an official safe space policy, and local zine guides and resources.

New events are still in the planning stages, including another benefit show and a very special VHS documentary viewing of Zined! at the Movie Loft. A major thank you goes to Phil Ford of WRIR for the VHS and documentary tip.

We’re excited about another year of Richmond Zine Fest festivities. Get ready RVA!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to another Richmond Zine Fest. We’re already discussing plans for next year’s fest and the things we’d like to accomplish before then. Please help out the co-organizers by filling out the following: RVA Zine Fest Survey,

Your responses will be of great assistance as we strive to keep Richmond Zine Fest going strong into its seventh year and beyond!

Sorry for the website hiccup, folks, but thanks to everyone who made it out for Richmond Zine Fest on Saturday, Oct. 6th. We had fun seeing new and familiar faces. Check out PJ Sykes’ amazing photo essay on Richmond Zine Fest here: Fake Fake Eyes.

And here’s a few photos I took that day. If you took any photos, please share them with us on Facebook or email us at richmondzinefest [at] yahoo.com

We can hardly believe that Richmond Zine Fest is less than a week away. We’re still accepting workshops, and that submission form will remain open until Wednesday evening. Please submit soon! We have more space available for workshops this year, and all zine or non-zine workshop/discussions/meeting ideas are welcome!

Online table registration will remain open until Friday at 6PM. Late registered tablers, however, will not be listed in the program. For as long as space is available, we will allow in-person table registration for the day of the Richmond Zine Fest. Same tabling rate applies–$10 for 1/2 table, $20 for full table, and $35 for two.

Last but not least, we’re very excited about the Zine Crush mailbox. Zine Crush is an anonymously run website and zine about crushes on either the zine-makers or the zines themselves. It’s all about spreading the zine love. You can either arrive prepared with your zine crush submission or pen one while you are there. We’ll be sending the package to the person behind Zine Crush for him or her to share after the fest.

It’s a Saturday and a great night to take in one of many shows in Richmond. Most of those don’t start until 9 or 10 PM, which leaves you plenty of time to take in a zine reading at 7 PM for your pre-party–possibly cultural, political, creative and humorous–festivities!

Come on out at 7pm to hang out in the back yard of the Bainbridge Collective on Southside and listen to some local zinesters and zine enthusiasts read from their zines or zines they love.

We are asking for folks to bring a few dollars to donate to the Richmond Zine Fest.

We have a lot of awesome things to share! Let’s take this in chronological order….

First, thank you to everyone who was able to come out this Wednesday for our event at The Camel. And big thank yous to the performers–Neil aka The Sixth Son, Gunboat, and Danger Lights. You all rock in my zine. In fact, ever since that night I’ve had a crick in my neck for attempting to rock like a headbanger. Lesson learned, but fun had. Check out some pictures from Wednesday above.

Second, we’re teaming up with Liberate RVA for their event on Friday, July 20th. It’s such an amazing cause. The night will include a discussion at 8 p.m. on the “True Roots of Human Violence” and after party at 9:30 p.m. at the Maplewood Anarchy Garden. Zines, like any creative activity and project, can be useful tools in spreading information about violence and prevention/care and in providing children and other survivors a safe, self-directed space to communicate and share their histories and healing. I’ll be there with information about zines, the Richmond Zine Fest, and conversation. For more information, please check out the event page and attend: Bomb in the Brain Freedom Gathering.

Last but not least, WE’VE GOT A SPACE! After much deliberation and looking at venues and space policies inside and outside the event-planning box, we decided to approach the Gay Community Center of Richmond (GCCR) again since they’re still operating in the building we love so much. For at least another year, we’re excited to be back at the GCCR again! With its accessible layout, free parking, spaciousness, and disco ball… the GCCR is our happy place. Thank you to Cindy Bray of the GCCR and Richmond Zine Fest co-organizer Mo Karnage for diligently following up to get this shindig confirmed.

Richmond Zine Fest 2012 will be Saturday Oct. 6th 11 am – 6 pm. Our event page is already up, so show us some love and tell us what zines you’ve been working on: Richmond Zine Fest 2012 on Facebook.

Expect an announcement with links to the registration pages for tablers and workshops this upcoming week.

Grrlyshowis “an 18 minute explosion of fringe feminism and print media, “Grrlyshow” is a powerful and rebellious message from new voices often left unheard. Filmmaker Kara Herold examines the girly Zine revolution and culture in such a way that the film intellectually and stylistically addresses anyone’s question concerning whether or not feminism has reached its 3rd wave: the postmodern. By interweaving head-shot interviews, clips from the zines and 1950’s television-esque vignettes, Herold clearly illustrates feminism’s ability to exist within a system that generally doesn’t give women their own voice. “Grrlyshow” successfully brings to the surface alternative voices and projects that are vital to the continuation and expansion of feminism.” (http://www.grrlyshow.com/)

Occupy America is about the difficulty the Occupy Movement faced in articulating its message and motivations to Americans, who are detached from and confused by the protests in NYC, DC, and other areas.

Since this is a fundraiser for Richmond Zine Fest 2012, the suggested donation is $3.

All funds will go toward the cost of a venue and other fees involved with planning and publicizing a non-profit event for independent, alternative publishing.

Well, we’ve been toiling away planning pre-events and with one fundraiser under our belts and a few new faces at our organizer meetings and amazing local people offering their talents, we’re excited about this summer and the fest in October. The good news is that we’re energized.

The bad news? There’s one pretty big dillemma–event space.

This spring we were informed that our dearly beloved Gay Community Center of Richmond (GCCR) may be unavailable this fall and indefinitely. Obviously, the chances of us finding some place affordable with the same ammenities is slim to none. We’ll miss you, GCCR!

Moving on. We’ve gone through our list of previous locations and new options, but we’re wondering if there are any places in the Richmond area that we’re overlooking. Thoughts? Ideas? Any recommendations would be incredibly helpful.

Here’s a list of the locations we’ve looked into so far:

St. Andrews

Doubletree Hotel

Plant Zero

Metro Space

Gallery 5

Robinson Theater Center

Our primary concerns are that it’s in an accessible space that can handle at least 50 tablers, 200-300 attendees (throughout the day, not all at once), and perhaps an area for workshops, free parking, and openness to outside food vendors. We’d prefer that tables/chairs be included, but we’re willing rent them separately as we’ve done in previous years. Feel free to post venue names, and we’ll look into the location/price/etc.

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For General Questions and Media Enquiries:

zine.fest@richmondzinefest.org

Want to help Richmond Zine Fest? All donations go toward the cost of a renting a space for the annual event and printing for promotions. We rely on donations to keep fees for participating in full-day event affordable for in-state and out-of-state participants.